Linwood mosque hero Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah has taken to court to confront the terrorist he once chased with nothing but an Eftpos machine, telling the gunman he is lucky he wasn’t caught.
Brenton Tarrant is being sentenced on 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and one terror charge after firing on two Christchurch mosques in a hateful rampage in March 2019.
In an incredible moment at the High Court this afternoon survivor Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah, who chased and fought the heavily armed killer on the day of the attacks, stood to stare him down a second time.
“You should thank God on that day, I didn’t catch you. That will be a different story,” he said.
“The Government would save a lot of money.
“You should thank Allah I didn’t catch you on that day. You never forget these two eyes.”
Mr Aziz told the court how he had been worshiping at Linwood Islamic Centre on March 15, 2019, when he heard gunfire.
“This coward, gutless person, come from the back, put his gun in the window and shot one of the brothers in the head, next to my son, and he fall down to the ground,” he said.
“I couldn’t find anything to defend myself, [but] there was an Eftpos machine.”
As the shooting continued Mr Aziz, who was armed with just the small electronic device, headed out into the carpark yelling and swearing, and spotted the killer’s car in the driveway.
The Afghani man told the court he threw the Eftpos machine at the car and Tarrant returned fire with bullets, forcing him to duck in between other vehicles, before noticing the killer had dropped a gun.
“I throw the gun on his side window, and smash his side window. When I smash window, I saw fear on his eyes for his own life, and he look at me, give me a finger and said ‘I will f**king kill all of you’,” he said.
The killer then fled down the drive, running two red lights in his hurry to get away, Mr Aziz said.
“I see the fear on his eyes when he was running for his life, Your Honour,” he told the court.
“I plead to police on that day. I said ‘please give me 15 minutes with me and him. I want to see how much guts he’s got without gun’. But they refused. I know they have to follow the law.”
The Christchurch mosque gunman was confronted with anger by families of the victims.
As the hero stood down from the court, Justice Cameron Mander stopped him to make a rare comment.
“I have seen the video and I want to acknowledge your courage,” he said.
“Thank you, Your Honour, thank you very much,” Mr Aziz replied.
The entire public gallery erupted in applause.
Sentencing is continuing.
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